NEW ULM — The number of arrests for driving while impaired in Brown County has soared in 2023 and 2024 compared to earlier years, according to a new public data tool launched by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Since Jan. 1, 2024, there have been 62 DWI arrests and 12 DWI crashes in Brown County. In 2023, there were 67 DWI arrests and six DWI crashes.

This is three times the number of DWI arrests in 2022, that had 23 DWI arrests and 11 crashes in 2022, according to the public data tool.

Accurate DWI arrest numbers for 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018 were not available.

New Ulm Police Commander Dean Barstad said the recent DWI arrest uptick may be due to officers paying close attention to late night and early morning hour traffic recently.

“We have a couple officers that are very focused on evening and early morning drivers, so you find more drivers impaired. In 2023, there were 58 DWI arrests in New Ulm. We’re also seeing more controlled substance impairment than we had a few years ago,” he said.

Barstad said the COVID-19 pandemic may have something to do with the fluctuating DWI numbers.

“Some businesses were closed, so not as many people were driving. More people were gathering in homes instead of businesses,” he said.

Barstad said police have also been busy lately ticketing drivers for holding communication devices.

“We have a few officers who are very active with enforcing that. Drivers are obviously very distracted when they pay attention to their phones,” he said.

Barstad said more officers are on duty during peak hours in evenings and during holidays.

Brown County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jason Fairbairn said law enforcement programs have increased in recent years.

“We’ve had more (state) border to border enforcement on highways that cross all of Minnesota around holidays like July Fourth, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Sometimes, we’ve got four deputies working. They’re often looking for speeders, but they get DWIs too,” he said.

“I’d credit more DWIs to more enforcement. We’ve had a lot of crashes recently too. I think it’s often due to distracted driving. More wireless device tickets are being issued now. If people aren’t connecting their phones to Bluetooth or other hands-free device on their vehicles, they’re looking at their phone, not the road. It only takes a few seconds to cover 100 yards on more on the highway,” said Fairbairn.

He said fines for second offenses for wireless device use while driving have increased plus driver insurance climbs.

“We say technology is good, but it also has a downside. Some people attach phones to their windshield. That’s illegal,” Fairbairn said.

He said advertising urging people not to drive when they drink, hire an Uber or be a rider and programs like Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) are important.

The mission of TZD is to create a culture for which traffic fatalities and serious injuries are not acceptable through integrated application of education, engineering, enforcement, and emergency medical and trauma services. Efforts are driven by research, data and best practices.

The DWI Dashboard includes alcohol and other impairment-related-substance crash and arrest data from the BCA eCharging system and the Department of Public Safety Office of Traffic Safety’s (OTS) MnCrash system.

For more information, visit dps.mn.gov/ and https://bcadataportal.state.mn.us/DWI.